339 : RNZY – Ryan and Lindsay use their Mental Real Estate with Poshmark , Goat, Mercari, Offerup, Letgo, Vinted and maybe a little Ebay to build out a multichannel ecommerce business

Funny I missed a few platforms in the title. Is there such a thing as too much? Rnzy (Ryan and Lindsay) say no. Think about it: If each platform has a unique audience, the possibility of finding “that” customer in the massive see of the Internet gets that much better. You see if you market correctly the right product at the right price with the best photos, the best description and THE absolute best customer service…… sales happen. Boy do they happen for Rnzy. 50-60% sell-through rates! Fast, okay , lightning fast inventory turns, multiple items per purchase, repeat customers. Whatever their formula is.. it is working.

(Bonus sign up before 9/15/18 and stay active through Black Friday to get the super special Black Gold Black Friday List- Must be a paid active member at time to get list and must be subscribed on or before 9/15/18)

Transcript: (note- this is a new tool I am trying out so it is not perfect- it does seem to be getting better)

Ryan & Lindsay: [00:00:00] The last 14 months we’ve sold over 3,100 pairs of shoes.

Cool voice guy: [00:00:04] Welcome to the ecommerce momentum where we focus on the people, the products, and the process of income are selling today. Here’s your host, Steven Peterson.

Stephen: [00:00:18] Hey, great opportunity here, right? You’re ready to buy. You’re ready to sell. Uh, if you could look for some cashflow, a now might be a great time to jump back into Ra at OAA. Lots of people do it. There’s some people that that’s all they do. They only work this time of year, sell enough, and then take the rest of the year off, sipping drinks on a beach in Bali. Well, anyway, though, the outliers, let’s talk about the rest of us, but if you want to add back Ra, no way. Then I have a great group for you. It’s through amazing freedom. Our friends at amazing freedom. My friends had amazing freedom and it’s Gaye Lisby’s specific. She is an unbelievable teacher. And so what the deal they offered us through this podcast is two weeks free. So it’s a two week free trial. So there’s no risk to you at all.

Stephen: [00:01:00] So it’s amazing. Freedom.com, forward slash momentum, hyphen arbitrage. That’s it. Okay, you’re going to get two weeks free, but here’s the deal. If you sign up now between now and September 15th, so that’s coming up in less than two weeks by September 15th. If you’re a subscriber and you stick through to black Friday, you’re going to get Gaye’s black gold list. Okay, so the beauty of it, it’s a black Friday list, right? If you’ve ever went out shopping at a black Friday list, when you we’d send shoppers out, we’d go to a whole bunch of different places and you get those peak items. The great news. Now you can order a bunch of them online too, but you also want to do, but to have a list in your hands, you go in, I buy these three items, boom, I’m out of there. Well, she gives you that list and that is a list they sell.

Stephen: [00:01:44] It’s expensive. However, if you’re a member and you’re a member by September 15th and you stick your way through to black Friday, you automatically get it for free, so you got to act fast, try the two weeks. It’s completely free. See what you get. Look at those daily finalist and then say, Huh, for the small fee, it is a month. This is worthwhile for me, especially this quarter. Get somebody’s buying for you. Give them this list. This is what you’re going to invest in. This is a simple testing tool for you to see, hey, is this something I can be good at, man, invest now, take the two weeks free and try it. I love it, love it, love it, and trust her. One hundred percent. She is such a teacher. Go check out our group. Okay, amazing. Freedom Dot com. Forward slash momentum. How you arbitrage? No.

Stephen: [00:02:27] The other sponsors I want to talk about is sellerlabs scope and we just launched a new product. I’m very excited about it. It’s wholesale and private label combined for us. Kind of a bundle thing that we do, but I’m very excited because we use scope to help me with the keywords because it’s such a big deal. Figuring out the key words. How are you going to rank for this? How do you rank for this? Well, guess what we do? We go like everybody else and we figure out what the top products keywords are and then we use them also. That’s what scope allows you to do. And so it’s such a great, great product for discovering profitable Amazon keywords and you can even use it for finding products to you can with fee, cow sale calculations, all that stuff’s included, right? And it’s you, it’s just a chrome extension.

Stephen: [00:03:09] Simple to use, simple to use. We use it if you could say 50 bucks by entering the code momentum. So sellerlabs.com, forward slash scope. And enter the code womentum save 50 bucks. That’s real money. Save it please. And finally, I don’t want to Miss Karen lockers. Solution for ecommerce solutions. The number for ecommerce forward slash momentum is our link. Um, uh, Karen’s been a sponsor, my show, I guess it’s almost three years now and it’s been phenomenal. The people that, uh, are still with Karen all those years, including me, I paid the same price you do. It’s because the consistency. Um, so many times I get these emails, Hey, stranded inventory report, boom. You know, I, I look at it but I don’t have to do anything because there’s a member of my team, somebody that we can count on to help my wife and I with our business so we don’t have to pay attention to it.

Stephen: [00:03:58] That’s what I like, that’s what I needed. And so solutions four ecommerce care locker, laugher her team. Um, I get notes from all the time I launched. I think I talked about this last time. I launched a ton of products. The same product that I’m using scope for. I sent her, here are the images here. Now we do the key words. We do all that stuff upfront. She does a flat files for me. Boom. They went in. It was perfect. No feedback. I don’t have anything to change because it was done exactly as it was supposed to be, but I didn’t have to mess with it. And it’s not that I can’t, it’s not that I’m above it, it’s just that it allows me now to focus on this other piece. And so when you’re a small company like ours, when you have other people on your team working with you and working for you, it just makes the difference.

Stephen: [00:04:36] And you know, I’ve said it for three years, again, I look for consistency overtime and Karen’s given me that, um, is it perfect? No, Steve’s never perfect. And so she keeps me on track and really helps us when we need it. And so it’s been a great relationship and I’m just so proud to offer it. I’m a very careful about these things and I’m so proud to offer it. So solutions the number for ecommerce forward slash momentum, you’re going to save 50 bucks and that’s real money. Again, that’s real $50 by using my link. You don’t get that link anywhere else to save the 50. And she’s going to do an inventory. Health report, storage fees, who got hit with storage fees, right? Just happened, right? A longterm storage fees. Now their monthly, right? This quarter they’re going to be monthly by using Karen and her team, you could get that inventory health done, boom, pull back, which you don’t need or put sales on it, whatever it is.

Stephen: [00:05:26] I’m Karen also does work on Ebay. If you want to bring your listings over to Ebay using joe list or any of the other products. She does that kind of work too, but you got to use my link solutions, the number for ecommerce forward slash momentum. Save the 50 bucks. Tell Karen I sent you and make sure that you really understand all the stuff that you can get through her service has been phenomenal. Let’s get into the podcast. Welcome back to the ECOMMERCE momentum podcast. This is episode 339. Ryan Esbjerg and Lindsey Baldwin Renzi. Yeah, this is a very,

New Speaker: [00:05:58] very cool couple who have figured out, gotten permission, didn’t ask for it. Took permission, I guess is the best way to say it. And they’re giving you permission to look at another way to sell. Um, they do not sell on Amazon. They sell a little bit on Ebay. They used to sell a lot more on Ebay, but they said we don’t want the hassles that come with selling on Ebay and a lack of respect and a lack of selling, um, we would like more and so therefore we want more. And so they have figured it out. They, again, they don’t ask for permission. They don’t apologize, they just do it. Um, and they have made themselves a very comfortable living by design. They have designed their life around their business. They have designed their business around their life and they are taking advantage, full advantage of that life, walking that dog five times a day, that’s important to them being with each other, um, as much as they are is important to them living in the place that Lindsay has found for them by design is important to them.

New Speaker: [00:07:01] Spending time with their family, which who wouldn’t want their kids to come and spend time with them is important to them. Okay? Just imagine all that. Well, they’re going to give you permission to think about some other things. And I think when you pull back and you start really looking at it the way they’re talking about it, when you really sit back and say, hmm, this is what I’m looking for, this is what I want. How do I get it? This might be a way. And I just think it’s so refreshing to hear young people. I sound like my grandfather, right? Young people today, but it’s so refreshing to find young people that have figured that out, man, as a dad. And I’m just proud of them. I’m so proud of them. Let’s get into the podcast. All right. Welcome back to the ECOMMERCE momentum podcast.

New Speaker: [00:07:43] We’re excited about today’s guests, plural, because a, they’re less than half my age and they’re killing it for them and they have figured out what they want to do. For now I’m and I’m really interested to hear why, because I just think that that at that age to figure it out or at least to have a plan to me is so smart and I just love it. Love it. Love it. Ryan Esbjerg and Lindsey Baldwin. Welcome guys. Renzi Renzi. Okay. Ryan and Lindsey are rinsing. It does make it easy. I. Hey, is Renzi coming? And they’re, the guys are like, yeah, I think he is. And the girls are like, well, yeah, I think she is, you know, it’s got to cause some conflicts periodically. Right. The public actually gave us that name and we just ran with it. You know, you guys are um, youtubers and new new Youtube Burgers, but I’m at least new to me and very instructional. Um, is it, is that coming from a place of giving back because people have helped you? Is that where that comes from? Absolutely. Yeah. It also comes from a place of what we generally generally like

Ryan & Lindsay: [00:08:56] to do. We started our instagram and our youtube channel as a way to connect with buyers and realized really quickly that we weren’t very passionate about that. So we switched it to, hey look, this is exactly how we’re doing what we’re doing and we gained a bigger following and it’s just allowed us to enjoy the growth process. And of course when you’re putting out what’s working for you, people always respond with, Hey, I’ve tried this. That may help, uh, in this process and it’s allowed us to grow as well, so it wasn’t an intent to get help, but that’s the benefit, right? Touch. And it’s just, you’re winning because others are saying, hey, that’s great. Sharpen the pencil a little bit further this way and maybe that’ll help you a little more. Yeah, we’ve opened up the door, we’re extremely transparent. We don’t leave anything out when we’re talking about how we’re winning and, and what we’re doing to improve.

Ryan & Lindsay: [00:09:50] And because we’ve opened that door and shown that transparency, a lot of people are grateful and they’ve also, they feel comfortable knowing that, uh, we’re, we’ve opened that door to saying, hey, uh, you know, you’re doing 200 plus pairs a month, uh, I’m doing $500. This is how I’ve done it. And it’s, it’s just a really good feeling knowing that there’s value being traded back and forth, know, and, and it also helps you know that, oh, the new mean. It’s possible to get there. So the boundaries get a little bit further every time. What’s interesting to me too is you said something that I think is very powerful. You’re aware where you become aware that the selling piece of it isn’t your love to selling to the buyers or communicating with the buyers. I think that’s a very powerful thing to figure out because there are some people who are gifted in that, right?

Ryan & Lindsay: [00:10:38] Those, those people can write the jingles or who can write commercials. They’re just gifted in that, right? Yup. That’s not you. That’s big. To be aware of that. I think self awareness is one of our biggest, most powerful traits, whether in, in all aspects of our business. I mean obviously the practicality is you have to be good at selling items. You have to be good at finding value in one place and putting it in another marketplace where you can make an income to live, but when you’re self aware about what process you absolutely love to do, you pour gas on that and then fill in the blanks with the processes that you’re not as passionate about. And is your goal to live? Is your goal to excel financially? Uh, um, mental health, physical health and relationship health, spiritual health. I mean, what is it, what is the goal?

Ryan & Lindsay: [00:11:30] I think, I think one of the things you just said that super important to us is mental health, um, time freedom is, is, is up there and the top two, but our mental health, our mental stability, you know, are we enjoying our days period? Um, and we always are thinking about that as we’re continuing to grow. We don’t want to grow so much that it becomes not fun. We don’t want to grow, we don’t want to not grow enough where we’re not earning enough where we’ll have to, you know, go do something else. Um, so time freedom for us is a probably number two, right behind mental freedom.

New Speaker: [00:12:07] But why, why mental? I mean, what is it that that’s pushing you that way? What’s different? I mean, are you looking at your friends based on your age and you’re seeing, you know, like, I mean, so I, I go back, I’m, I’m a lot older than you. I’m older than your parents probably. And I sit back and I look at a lot of them that are just grinding away or were they working and I’m just talking about in church this weekend and somebody is like, you know, I’m 14 months from retirement because I don’t want to die at my desk. And I’m like, oh my God. Yeah. It just makes you feel bad. What is it that’s driving you guys at your age? How old are you guys? Roughly?

Ryan & Lindsay: [00:12:41] and I’m, I’m 34. Oh, you guys, you guys are pulling it off. I’m going to tell you that you look a lot younger than that. That is good. Keep that going. Yeah. Everyone always

Lindsay: [00:12:51] thanks. They’re double our age and then they hear our age and they’re like, oh,

New Speaker: [00:12:54] okay. I’ve got kids. I’ve got kids as old this year. All right, good. All right. Now we’re in. But it’s true though. I mean the fact that you’re that age makes it even more important because, I mean, I hate to say it. My, my older son. Who Your Age, um, Ryan is, didn’t. I didn’t train him that way. He went to Grad school because he was going to get a job. Now he’s figured it out and, and I’m fortunate that way, but that wasn’t what I taught them because that wasn’t the way I grew up.

Ryan & Lindsay: [00:13:17] Well, and I, and I appreciate the way that you taught your son who’s my age and I appreciate, you know, what my parents passed on to me because during that time, College Grad school was the path. It was the path that made sense to the most success. But now we’re in a time, you know, in a 20, 18, 20, 19 world where that is just not the case anymore. And some people get stuck in it. I was in the quote unquote rat race. I was told, you know, find the shirt and tie job that pays 70 to 100 k a year that you’ll work for 60 to 65 years and then you’re going to move and then you’re gonna move to Boca Raton, Florida. And then that’s when you get to start having fun. And so I was in that process and then after graduating college and starting that realized very quickly that I was not enjoying it and then that led to some darker parts of my life and I got myself out of it and think, thank God I found someone who felt the same way that I did in terms of, you know, had an entrepreneurial spirit, wanted to really get down into the dirt and build something that was our own in order to have that time freedom and that mental stability with the practicality of paying the bills, you know, food in our belly, a roof over our head and shirts on her back.

New Speaker: [00:14:32] Lindsey, is that the same for you? I mean, would you say it’s similar path?

Lindsay: [00:14:36] Yeah, it was similar. Um, I actually went to school for art therapy and got my degree and figure figured out really quickly that, that was completely burned me out. And um, wasn’t really for me. And I always had this kind of anxiety about figuring out what I wanted to do. You know, my parents would always ask, what do you want to do? What’s your career going to be? All this and it would cause me this great anxiety and I think it was because I wasn’t taking advantage of the path to get to where I want it to be. And realizing that in that grind, in that, you know, path itself was what I was enjoying. Yeah. And uh, you know, I would work retail or whatever it was and it was fine, but I would have, you know, a side hustle that I was doing and that was what was kind of getting me through the day today.

New Speaker: [00:15:26] You fall back on that. That was what was given to the fuel, not whatever you were doing

Lindsay: [00:15:31] right. And I, I didn’t have it in my mind that wait, that could actually be my thing. Like that could be the career, whatever you want to call it. Um, so making that, you know, mental transition to wait, I like this, this is enjoyable. And on a day to day basis, you know, gonna give me happiness. It was just all kind of roped in and made complete sense for us together as a team.

New Speaker: [00:15:57] Went from there. You know, I saw a video from Gary v Dot yesterday and he talked very strongly about this issue that he said they’re in the last two years has been the easiest time to create a business and if you haven’t figured it out, we’ve got to figure it out now because when, when times get tough, you’ve got to be in position where you trying to measure up to your parents expectation and I’m not criticizing them because I’m a dad and I’ve got kids and so I, I’m there, you know, I’m college educated, advanced and my son of course had to go to college. That was the way it was. That’s all I knew. Were you trying to measure up to your parents expectation and therefore didn’t, didn’t explore out? I mean, does that, is that common in your world?

Lindsay: [00:16:41] I mean, at least for my family, my parents only goal or only, um, you know, idea for me was to be as happy as possible and cool and in their mind that was finding the career, finding the job that you know, I was fulfilled with in my life. And that was how I found happiness and bear, I mean, over the moon with, I mean, they thought we were crazy at first delivering like thousands of pairs of shoes to people in Portland. Um, but they’re just pumped that I found the happiness no matter what it was. And I think it was different for them. They’re a different generation. I’m in a different minded people, but they’re just happy that I found that the happiness intertwined with the work and life and everything.

New Speaker: [00:17:28] Right. I think that that is so, that’s such a big statement that they’re happy that you found your path and today it’s this path, right? Whatever it is, it’s just not, you’re not stressed. I mean, let me see if this is a fair question. At your age, you have friends at your age, are they stressed already in their job? Some of them,

Ryan & Lindsay: [00:17:50] uh, you know, obviously 34 versus Lindsay at 28. But I felt like as I was going through my twenties and kind of figuring out, you know, where I would land with this entrepreneurial passion that’s always been in me since I was little, I saw friends that were doing things based on their age and not their happiness or what they really wanted to do. They were asking people to marry them when they didn’t really love them. They were financial reasons or to make the perfect picture, hey, everyone’s supposed to get married on, supposed to have this job. Everyone’s supposed to have a house. So literally making these monster decisions against what their internal feeling was, but be quote unquote, because it was that time of life. And now you know, I’m at 34. I have friends that are divorce that are broke because they can’t pay their mortgage, are broke because, you know, they got a boat when they couldn’t afford it, you know, like all these things.

Ryan & Lindsay: [00:18:50] Um, and now they’re just stumbling. Not everyone. Of course, you know, there’s people that have career jobs, lawyers, doctors, stuff like that. But the people who didn’t really dig down and say, what makes me happy, what, what do I want to be doing on a daily basis are now struggling to both hold up that front of like, you know, I, I, I like that I have a house even though I kind of want to move, but I can’t. Um, I like that I, you know, have this possession, whether it’s a car, a boat, a whatever, even though I can’t afford it and I got to get another credit card to pay the bills were on the flip side. I both, uh, respect people’s point of view while not caring at all, what they think about where I’m supposed to be in my life. And I surround myself with people who are just happy. Like Lindsay said, that are happy that I’m happy.

New Speaker: [00:19:39] That’s a big, big thing. They’re broken. I think it was a good way to describe it. They’re broke financially, but they’re broken and all these other ways. And so the way you’re describing it is that Hay, you can heal yourself, but you guys look like minimalists. Would you call yourself, even though you buy stuff and your stuff, buyers because you’re buying them to sell, are you minimalists in some way?

Ryan & Lindsay: [00:20:01] I would say we fall into that category, but not the extreme. I mean, when I think minimalist it, it’s very exciting to think about like, you know, the tiny home and uh, you know, uh, you know, eating soup all day and all this stuff. I could get this, I might be able to do the tiny house, but I know nobody in super. I don’t know where that came from. I could, I could live off peanut butter and jelly, but we’re, we’re very passionate about, like, we set our time freedom to be able to say yes to the things that we want to do. I mean, we still go out to dinner, uh, frequently. We, uh, we do spend every single penny right now, pours, pours back into our business. Um, so that we can build up this quote unquote that allows us, when we start having kids to really have the freedom to live a life, spending time with the kids traveling if we want to, or building another month, third part of the business. Um, the, the idea of being stuck or having to say no to an opportunity is something that suffocates us. So we’re trying to give ourselves as much opportunity in, through hard work, through self awareness, through empathy to the people around us

New Speaker: [00:21:17] and you’re leading by example to me. I’m very, very hopeful that a whole bunch of people before they get tied down by all those anchors that you were talking about, they were all our anchors that they figured this out and you’re showing a good example. Okay. So let’s talk about how you got into sewing period because you both went to school and life was going to be, you know, the picture postcard with the white fence. Everything was going great. And then who’s big idea was it to sell shoes?

Ryan & Lindsay: [00:21:43] Well, I, uh, I think it was both of us coming together. We actually, the first time that we met, we went out to coffee at Lindsay was running a business and I was running a brand and we were getting together for a business coffee to collaborate very quickly. We’ll, we’ll, we’ll, we’ll hold on. Do you just can’t drop that. There’s more to that story. Lindsey. Tell the story. I want to hear it. There’s a story there.

Lindsay: [00:22:07] Yeah. So I was running this handbag company with my uncle and Ryan had started this other brand in Portland called flex your face and he wanted my handbag company to come on board and be a part of the brand that he was pushing and so we had never met before. We met for coffee. He wanted to give his business proposal to me.

Lindsay: [00:22:34] Five minutes in we’re like, all right, no more business. Um, let’s just, you know, have some coffee and get to know each other and it’s kind of history from there and never, never combined businesses until our whole life was combined into a business.

Ryan & Lindsay: [00:22:51] Like Lindsay said, you know, a couple minutes into the conversation we realized that it was going to be less of a business conversation to more of, you know, we were attracted to each other and we both, we’re both trying to be very professional and I was being a little more excited than your traditional business meeting. And so we decided, hey, let’s, let’s not mix business, let’s get to know each other. We went out on a couple of dates and then when we started dating, we realized the two of us together as a force that, you know, the world has never seen. And we both liked, um, this idea of the simplicity of lipping items in value. We’ve done it through, you know, whether it was lemonade stands when we were kids or um, you know, literally stuff from goodwill, you know, coffee machines, wooden bowls.

Lindsay: [00:23:40] Yeah. Our second date, Ryan had looked up a bunch of free craigslist stuff and we literally drove all around me filling my car with freestyle.

New Speaker: [00:23:51] Yeah, no, hold on a second because this is important to understand. So here’s this guy trying to woo you, trying to impress you, and he’s used. This is the, this is the technique is using. Hey, I’m cheesy, I want free stuff. Are you in

Ryan & Lindsay: [00:24:05] my heart? I said, hey, you’ve got a great car for this. They wanted. That was it. There’s some free weights. They’re free. I’ll, I’ll, I’ll put them in the car, but let’s go get him.

New Speaker: [00:24:18] So, so at that point though, that shows kindred spirits right there, right? The fact that, you know, the uh, you know, I guess let me say it this way and it’s going to sound kind of Corny, but I think it’s real, his vulnerability to show you that and that’s got to be kind of attractive in a weird way, right?

Lindsay: [00:24:36] Yeah. I think, I mean that was what connected us on, you know, first and foremost and has kept us going and will keep us going is we’re both just really honest with who we are and we don’t embellish anything about our lives and we’ve done that since the first time we met.

New Speaker: [00:24:55] It’s so cool. I mean, to me that’s so rare and so, but you know, when, when you guys do speak and you will be speaking, you guys have it, you will be out there in the circuits. That’s probably so important to talk about because everybody’s trying to pretend to be somebody they’re not right. Then we say, Dave Ramsey, he always says, you know, you’re trying to impress people who don’t like anyway. Right. But it’s so true because you’re so afraid of what everybody else thinks.

Ryan & Lindsay: [00:25:21] Yeah. I think you brought up a great point about, you know, the, our ages and I think a lot of people, uh, don’t have the ability to be so honest with themselves first or no one else is around. And then to be able to project that honesty and that vulnerability and it, at least for me approaching, you know, a beautiful woman at that time in my life, I had made a decision before us getting together that with everyone in my life. I was going to be 100 percent honest about the things that I love to do about the things that I don’t like to do. About my weaknesses, about my strengths and I think it’s because of that, um, you know, Lindsey could have very easily said, oh, that’s, you know, that’s growth. We’re gonna go dig free weights out of the snowbank that are free on the side of the road. And, and I had to take that chance and uh, because I took that chance and because she did the same thing and being very honest with me, I mean she could have easily said, oh, that sounds great because she was attracted to me, but if she didn’t really enjoy that, our relationship wouldn’t be at where it is now. It would have come out. Yeah, I agree. It always shows. It always shows you can’t hide it.

New Speaker: [00:26:32] Okay. So when I was thinking about this, Lindsey have an art background, Ryan, you didn’t say what your degree is, but I could, I could tell you, you guys have different skillsets. So when you guys were thinking about going into business together, what, what part of the business did or skill skillset did you think you would bring in? Is it, has it been different as you guys have figured it out?

Ryan & Lindsay: [00:26:56] Well, I think the immediate answer is we found out who we found out very quickly each other’s strengths and weaknesses of my strength, for example, is absolutely everything is possible. There’s nothing we’re not going to be able to do. Uh, let’s, let’s say I’m in the clouds, like, yes, we can do this. And uh, my weakness is not thinking through logistically how step by step it’s going to happen. And then of course is strength we found out is yes, I’m on board. I think we can do it too, but let’s, let’s, let’s work in reverse and say what do we have to do today in order to hit that goal and find out how logistically how to do it?

New Speaker: [00:27:34] Well, I can reverse engineer. Yeah, I, you guys have a lot of organization and I’m interested in talking about that. Okay. So we decided we’re going to work together. We Sat, we the dating’s working, we’re getting free stuff now we’re thinking about at some point combining forces and doing something together. Um, so walk us through that.

Ryan & Lindsay: [00:27:56] Well, I think a very early on we were flipping a lot of random items, kind of as a side hustle thing more as fun. Um, and then when it came to shoes, we started seeing on facebook marketplace that there was people selling their gently used shoes and people were actually buying them. And that’s one thing that we were like, how I don’t understand how other people are buying used shoes. So we, we started looking at all the conversations that were happening and we started seeing a trend in a. Their people were selling the shoes but the sale wouldn’t go through if they couldn’t meet at a mutual place either that was closer to the seller or that was closer to the buyer. So we had some extra shoes in our shoe closet and we said, hey, why don’t we do this thing where we put them up at an absolutely reasonable priced 25 bucks a pair and will deliver anywhere within 50 miles for no extra charge, no obligation.

Ryan & Lindsay: [00:28:53] You get to try on the shoes, look them over in person. And in order for that to be successful, there had to be two of us doing it for safety and just write that kind of thing. Yep. Okay. Yeah. And so a couple of things happened where it started to click. One, we were spending a lot more time together. You had an agenda, there’s your plan. And I like it, I liked it. We were spending a lot of time together literally driving around and, you know, and on the good days we were interacting with a lot of people on the bad days. We were waiting and you know, grocery store parking lots, uh, you know, goofin and talking with each other. And we realized, Hey, our time is being spent doing something that we like if we can be successful and pay our bills, doing this, where gold. And we started looking at all the solutions to all the problems that other people had that we’re trying to do similar things.

Ryan & Lindsay: [00:29:47] And we were just solving all of those problems really, really quickly, which allowed us to scale really, really quickly, which allowed us to do this full time and, uh, grow at a very rapid pace. So you were delivering for $25. What was the furthest. Did you go the full 50 miles out at one point? Yeah. And that’s again, I was like, hey, let’s deliver anywhere within 50 miles. Just I just threw it out there, not realizing that parts of New Hampshire are within 50 miles of where we live in. And people were calling us out on it because we were on these buy and sell apps. They’re like, Hey, I googled, I’m 49 miles from Portland and I’m, I want this $25 pair of shoes just to see if you do it my bed. They didn’t even care about the shoes. They just wanted to see you do it.

Ryan & Lindsay: [00:30:29] Yeah. We actually had people that would, uh, and you know, at that time we were doing hundreds of deliveries a month. And so the practicality that someone might, if they were looking at our business, they would say, that makes no sense. You’re not making any money. And if we were only doing that one delivery a week or month, it didn’t make sense. But we always look at our business as building relationships more than selling a product. So we would drive the 49 miles. We would realize that the guy that wanted my size, 10 and a half and Nike’s is actually a men’s 12, uh, and really wanted to see if we were actually coming, we would shake the guy’s hand. We would say, hey, you know, you’re, you’re a little bit bigger than the immense 10 and a half, but what are you interested in? What brands do you love?

Ryan & Lindsay: [00:31:13] We can hunt down those options and bring back some men’s 12 for you. He was so astonished that he would tell everyone in the neighborhood. And then the next time we made the 49 mile drive, we were selling 25 pairs of shoes instead of one. Hold on. So you were creating a customer database with preferences and actually knowing what people want and you built this out, scaled like with handshake, we built that at scale through delivery, through grocery store, parking lots through meeting at the post office. And then very quickly retailers realized because they saw people leaving us reviews on our facebook page that we were delivering more shoes than they were selling every month. So they gave us access to their inventory and we grew at scale just literally driving on all four seasons, driving through the winter, pulling up to mom and dad’s house, uh, outfitting everyone with boots and a recording each step of the way.

Ryan & Lindsay: [00:32:11] Uh, if, if the boots didn’t fit, we’d say, you know, what size are you exactly. We size them up and then we’d come back the next week with options. Like you’re bringing shoe things with you. Like those shoe measuring things. We would bring options. For example, if a mom was a size eight and the dad was a 13 and the kids were, you know, x, y, and Z, we would always bring half a size smaller and half the size larger. So that we could literally on foot, not like measure their foot with one of little shoe measuring,

New Speaker: [00:32:40] but literally, Hey, this is a women’s eight and a half. You said you were an eight but you like eight and a half. If you like this style, here’s an option. If you don’t know exactly, you’re an eight and a half. No, no one at that point. When you’re describing at that level, are those new shoes at that point? Nope. First our first 800 pairs because we didn’t have the buying budget to buy new inventory. Our first 800 pairs were thrifted where from a garage sales were from. We spent hours and hours cleaning them. We spent hours making sure there was no rips or tears. We made sure there was no smells and we would hand deliver them. No kidding. So, so as I sit here and think about this and whole bunch of people are going to say the same thing. This sounds like it’s still scalable.

New Speaker: [00:33:24] I know this is not your model currently, but this sounds like what, what’s wrong with the shoe store? You know, it’s Kinda the toysrus issue, right? Toys. The rest went into business because nobody wanted to go there. They never became the destination. They were just a box. Right. That wasn’t a place that you would go and have an experience. Right. Your generation is experienced, driven, [inaudible]. You brought an experience by going to somebodies house, actually looking them in the eye. You, you brought the local shoe store that’s probably enclosed in your market for a long time at uh, most, most towns are close. Yep. You brought that right to their house, that, that personal level of service. That’s almost concierge level of service. It sounds like it’s still wanted. Needed. Yeah, absolutely. And for a while we were known as the shoe concierge. So it’s funny that you say that.

New Speaker: [00:34:13] That’s funny. That’s exactly the way people saw the. They didn’t want to deal with the hassle of bringing your kids into the shoe store. They didn’t even want to deal with the shoe salesman and they very quickly, because of the reviews we were getting, people realize that there is no obligation. I can feel comfortable with this couple meeting me that I’m not going to be forced to buy the shoes if they don’t fit exactly how I like, you know, it’s, it’s making me think about your grandfather’s day. There would have been door to door salesman, so an aluminum siding, vacuum cleaners, all that John Crate, but they were scurvy. But in this you’re invited in. I mean, you know, a whole bunch of people are going to sit back and say, Huh, this is a business, isn’t it? This really is a business. Now this business scaled pretty large pretty quickly. Why not stay with it?

Lindsay: [00:35:04] I mean, it goes back to kind of our time freedom and our own real estate. And um, we had started, you know, we built our buying budget. Nothing. Literally what we found in our closet up to, you know, we had a thousand dollars to spend on shoes and we loved

New Speaker: [00:35:25] Well, we love that. We love the hunt. We love the, the, you know, you’re going out and you’re trying to find the shoes that people are looking for themselves. And you have at this point, a clue of what they’re looking for because you now have all this you’ve built

Ryan & Lindsay: [00:35:38] up this hands on. I mean this is real research. This is on the, on the ground boots scrapping the whole way. And we had a giant request list. We had a, like you said, all this data. And then we realized we were spending a tremendous amount of time cleaning the shoes, were spending a trend, a tremendous amount of time delivering. We’ve built all these relationships with people within 50 miles of Portland, Maine. How can we scale this without affecting more time? And that’s where new shoes came in. You don’t have to clean new shoes. Uh, there’s enough new inventory in the sourcing spots that we researched where we can grow even more. And our buyer base can be bigger based on the word of mouth from our, you know, small within 50 miles that scaled into everyone’s family and friends that lives all across the United States is hearing about us.

Ryan & Lindsay: [00:36:30] We can now ship them a brand new inventory. We were very hesitant to get into the shipping side of things because when you have gently used items, one person’s interpretation of gently use is different than ours, so that’s why the delivery, we’ve got the shoes right in front of you worked in the beginning, but when we scaled to shipping items, we wanted to use all brand new stuff so that there’s no confusion. These are brand new unworn shoes and we couldn’t, we needed to free up some time that we had spent cleaning and processing all the shoes and the only option we had was brand new inventory and shipping is a lot less than cleaning. Right? I mean, you could probably do it a 10th of the time. Um, let me ask you this. When you went to that house with those shoes, what was your closing ratio, would you say?

Ryan & Lindsay: [00:37:19] Well, I think a very rarely we would leave and we’ll tell you why. Very rarely we would leave without a sale. We realized really quickly, we’ve got a car that has space. We’re not just going to bring the only pair of shoes that this person wants. We’re going to bring other options in that size. We’re going to bring options that half a size smaller and a half a size bigger. And we were confirming deliveries an hour before and we were confirming, uh, is, is there anyone else looking for shoes? Because we’re, we’re running a deal where if you buy three pairs of shoes, you get a fourth pair free. Uh, they were like, actually, my daughter needs a pair and actually my husband needs a pair. Can You bring options? So very, very rarely were we selling no shoes, each delivery and almost all the time we were selling multiple pairs in a very friendly, um, non salesy environment.

Ryan & Lindsay: [00:38:11] And so my mind would go this way is I would sit back and I’d say, Oh, the next thing I’m gonna do is I’m going to bring socks. Next thing I’m going to do is bring multiple colors, especially for ladies. Uh, they like it in white. Well, maybe they’d like it in black. And they’d like, um, you know, again, at scale, not easy to do if you’re doing used because the odds of finding it however knew it opens up a lot of opportunities. But again, it’s that time suck no matter what, you’re going to limit the number of customers you can

New Speaker: [00:38:35] have because a, there was a rule the two of you had to go together, which are smart and be you wanted more time in your life, not less time in your life. However, as I sit back and I listened to this, I’m like, oh my God, this concierge level is what they’re doing in my market. And groceries. I don’t know if they’re doing that in your market, but in my market, groceries, I mean I, I, there’s never a time I go home and we live in an apartment place. We sold our house, downsize, and there’s never a chance where there’s not one of those meal prep boxes in the hallway or the grocer delivery things in the hallway for some of these people. They are clearly, you know, taking advantage of that country level service. So now you start shipping shoes. What’s the level of closing of shipping? I guess it would be returns would be it because in that scenario you go to my house. I try on the shoes. I don’t like them. There’s your return, right? You never. I never took ownership. There really is no return. It just the sale didn’t happen and it didn’t sound like it happened very often because you brought multiple sizes, but now you’re shipping. What’s the return percentage or has been your experience?

Ryan & Lindsay: [00:39:41] Extremely low and we’ll tell you why. We’ve put a lot of thought into that because we’ve seen a lot of people that ship a lot of stuff and they get a lot of returns and we asked why. Why are you getting the returns? I’m either. We found in our research either there wasn’t enough communication beforehand. There wasn’t enough information about the product. It was a spur of the moment by which happens all the time, so we pride ourselves in pre by customer service. We pride ourselves in thorough descriptions in thorough well lit photos of every single pair. We’ve actually denied people ordering, ordering from us if they’re not buying the pair that they want or the a pair for their significant other, um, which has alleviated a lot of the people trying to scam us. We pride ourselves. How do you, how do you

New Speaker: [00:40:31] today, how do you, how do you, uh, uh, I guess I can’t think of the right word, but how do you get people upfront to qualify them? I guess. So how do you qualify that lead? Right. And

Ryan & Lindsay: [00:40:43] that’s the best question. Qualifying the lead. We look for big red flags. If someone says something like, well, if someone says something like, if I don’t like these, can I return them? We dive in. We dive into the obvious question is, well, what size are you looking for? What’s your favorite brand? You know, Nike’s May run a little bit smaller than other brands. So have you purchased Nike’s before? Are you this size? Um, you know, we are, we do accept returns. We do. You know, we’re not against that at all, but we always are asking questions before the buy in. You can, you know, we’ve sat in the last 14 months, we’ve sold over 3,100 pairs of shoes. Um, and so we’ve gotten real good about indicating, you know, those red flagged, someone just starting off, for example, a lot of people reach out to us and they say, Hey, I posted these on for 40 bucks. Someone offered me 50, what do I do? And we said, that’s a huge red flag. Why would they offer you more instead of just buying it? Or Hey, this person says I want to squeeze into these because I liked the style, you know, don’t, we’re not, we’re not into people’s squeezing into shoes. Hey, why don’t we find a pair for you that will fit. We bring on choose each and every week.

Lindsay: [00:41:58] The other thing that we’ve had happen is because we’ve gotten so good at sourcing and were able to price our things so competitive, we’ve had people get the shoes and they don’t fit, but they’ll just resell them or they’ll, you know,

Ryan & Lindsay: [00:42:11] they’ll sell them. They can make so nice a lot more of that than them actually sending them back. It’s, it’s about providing enough value and tons of transparency, thorough description as well at photos. So there’s no, and here’s the return. We were not on Ebay and Amazon. We’re not on Amazon at all and we’re on Ebay a lot less because these other marketplaces have a big enough by buyer base and a what we think is a little bit better system in alleviating some of those returns. Um, and they’re, they’re more seller friendly than some of the we’ve experienced on Ebay.

New Speaker: [00:42:49] You’re going right where I was going, I think this is again, the intention is why I love you guys because this, this, this takes away one of the biggest hassles of dealing with Amazon in a different way. But with Ebay specifically Ebay, everybody’s going, it’s a yard sale. I mean, that’s what they’re doing. They’re looking for a bargain. They’re looking for a deal. It’s, it is. They want to negotiate, they want that. That’s the way it is. But you know, you guys sell on multiple channels and we’ll talk about that in a second. That design of getting rid of non qualified customers I think is so, so, so, so smart. I mean, I hope people are listening to that. Again, listen to the whole section. Again, it’s designed this way. They have realized there’s a hassle. I always call it the hassle factor. Those other channels, while they have a market, and let’s face it, Amazon is the market rate for that.

New Speaker: [00:43:38] For the most part. They sell more shoes and an hour. Then you guys will sell in your lifetime, right? That’s fine, but it’s price driven. Right? And so you guys are saying, hey, we’re going to give you the quality, what you expect. We’re going to be that concierge level, but we want to be where people are expecting that. I think that that intention is what separates you guys from so many other sellers that I see, but don’t you give it up? Let me, and let me answer this question because people are going to be saying it, but they’re limiting their opportunity by not selling on Amazon, by barely selling on Ebay. You’re limiting all your opportunities. Ryan and Lindsey, you know, you’re never going to be the billion dollar sellers that you could be.

Ryan & Lindsay: [00:44:21] Yeah, that’s a, we love that. And we appreciate, you know, that question while not caring at all, really don’t care. I, we have zero care because here’s the thing. We’re never going to tell people they need to live like we do. We’re never going to brag a, you know, in order to bring someone else down. But the reality is, uh, you know, we’re hitting numbers that are giving us so much opportunity to walk the dog five times a day to go on these trips that we want to spend time with family to wake up each and every single day when we want to wake up and do all these things. I mean, we have big goals, so we work really, really hard. But again, we don’t care what other people think. And here’s the cool thing. The really cool thing is you can win big on Ebay.

Ryan & Lindsay: [00:45:08] You can win big on Amazon, you can win big on poshmark, you can kill it on Macquarie, you can kill it on vintage. Let go. We built our business and did $100,000 in the first 12 months on facebook marketplace. Everyone can win based on what they consider a win. I mean we’ve got big plans for real estate investment. We’ve got big plans, but all of the avenues that we’re finding are creating solutions for what our goals are and we support other people to do the same thing. You just have to figure out what your goal is and you may be killing it on Ebay and want to stay there or you may be fed, fed up with Ebay and say, hey, I don’t like that. People are buying shoes for me. And then 29 days later returning it and then or you know, whatever it is, like open up your mind to what you want to achieve and then find where the solution is.

Ryan & Lindsay: [00:46:03] And we can give you Ken plus examples of how to win in the shoe game. Not on Ebay and Amazon, but the reality is what you just said, it’s such a big marketplace. They sell a pair of shoes every four seconds. You can win there too. I think it’s, you guys are giving people permission to look elsewhere because unfortunately that’s what people want. They want permission because what they’ve been told is they must sell on Amazon because that’s the marketplace. You heard me say that, right? They have 55 percent of all online sales, I think, right? Or maybe even 60 by now. However, you know, and if that’s your goal, that’s awesome. But if you want to live a very comfortable life in it, you know, one of the other things that I noticed, this is my observation, um, the house that you’re living in now. Was that the House that you started in? No, no, we, uh, we looks intentional. The loft with the design. The organization. That’s Lindsey, right? The anal retentive designer.

Ryan & Lindsay: [00:47:05] We started. Here’s, here’s the background, quick 32nd story is I moved in with Lindsey when we first started dating. She has an amazing brother who she was living with who was a successful lawyer, obviously three people living in the same apartment. It was turning into while we were running our business, our shoe business, like we said, he’s. He was such a supportive brother, wall wall to wall. We had shoes and he would come home from his very successful lawyer firm and just he would shop and get shoes, but he was open to us growing our business. We realized very quickly we need a bigger space. We moved our business into a storage unit that we quickly grew out of and we said we need to find a living situation. Lindsay did a ton of research, found not only this place that had a loft, it was within our budget and we have the pub which we could separate a, a healthy living space from the business but still be working out of the same location and it was extremely intentional and has allowed us to. We were going to three x our business in the next month and we have the space to do it.

New Speaker: [00:48:11] Is it again? So we’re going to pause for a second. And how long is this all taking place? So walk us back to when you were at your brother’s place. Lindsay until where you are now.

Lindsay: [00:48:23] We started selling shoes in June of 2017. Um, we finished 2017 in the old place I want to say and moved here this last spring or around like may I think.

New Speaker: [00:48:37] Okay. So my point is, is it didn’t happen this month, right? There’s planning. Who’s patient enough at your eight guys? Nobody is patient enough. I mean, what is, I mean if you looked at one of your secret sauce, you know, the things that help separate you, that make you outliers in this world right now. Would you say patients is one? I mean self-awareness obviously right up on top and knowing each other’s strengths and weaknesses. I mean I’d love it, but this patient’s thing a, it’s not heard of. Especially at your age.

Ryan & Lindsay: [00:49:06] Yeah, I think. I think it has to be one, two with a self awareness first and then patients, because with the self awareness, we realize what we love to do, where we want to go together and were very vocal and communicative about that and then realizing that that does not have to happen right now. We don’t have to rush this thing and in order to build a strong enough base to get to where we want to go, we have to have patience with all this. We’ve talked about it frequently throughout the last, you know, hours. So there’s a lot and it’s not easy. We’re not saying this like, oh, it’s so easy. There’s a lot of, hey, you guys are supposed to be this. You’re supposed to be that. You’re supposed to be doing this, and we just smile and we either love those people from afar or let them know, hey, we’re happy and we’ve got some big plans that were going there. What happens is two months later those people are like, wait, wait, how much did you make this month? Are you kidding me? I all, I see you guys walking the dog all day. I see you guys, you know, going on these little mini vacations like, are you serious? You made that much money. And then the, the, the evaluation of what we’re doing. Switching.

New Speaker: [00:50:10] When, when you look at your business now, you think that you have the ability, you’ve built the infrastructure. Maybe I should say it that way. Two, three exit, right? That’s fair. Very Fair. Yeah. Okay. So your limits would be. Probably capital would be one, right? That would be. That’s, I think it’s a limit on everybody. Right? But space utilization, efficiency, throughput, you have all that figured out. You’ve tested all. So I think that’s a genius move. So you now, because I think a lot of people jump ahead and then a, you know, if I walked out into my warehouse, I’d show you all those things that I jumped ahead of regret. You know, those as a guy tells me I drag it around an old girlfriend with my old inventory. I keep moving. All right. Um, so, so I get that. So you guys are doing it the opposite way.

New Speaker: [00:50:54] You built the infrastructure, the roads are in place, everything’s ready to rock. Now once the pipeline gets opened, and especially this q four, it sounds like you guys are really there. How do you handle then? I’m building out mentally. When you do want to take these trips, how do you, how do you put that piece of the infrastructure in place to help sustain Your Business? Continuity? At least. Let me just use my Amazon Ebay. The continuity of the listing, staying in the algorithm is critical. If you take out, if you step out of it, it takes you on Ebay. It takes two or three months to get back into it. If you ever get back as far as you were in. Same thing with Amazon.

Ryan & Lindsay: [00:51:30] Yeah, well we were very self aware. I mean we don’t go on monster trips. Everything. Literally everything we do is from our phone so we’re never away from the business, but if we do go, for example, on Thursday we’re going on another one of our big sourcing trips where we will be gone from our inventory for two or three days. We’ve tested. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, you know, friends and family coming in and shipping stuff so we can keep our shipping times down. We’ve tested putting our inventory on vacation mode. Um, we’re still working that out, but we never are away from it long enough for it to be detrimental, like you said, to get out of that algorithm.

New Speaker: [00:52:09] So this is a short term issue. You’re, you’re, you’re figuring out in the short term knowing that this is a limit for now. It’s not a limit forever. Okay. I love it. Right. I think that’s so smart because that would be a reason not to do it. Right. Oh Wow. You know, Ryan, I can’t do it, man. I, I, you know, I take trips every month or whatever. That’s a reason. That’s an excuse right now. You guys are limiting. Um, and you’re still, you know, another thing, I think this is powerful, a whole bunch of people are saying themselves. The same thing is that, that if that’s your biggest limit, life’s really good, right? I mean, that’s it, you know. Yeah. You can’t take, you can’t take a 10 day trip a Ryan Lindsay, but you can take a five day trip. But I’m sorry, you know, you’re gonna have to sacrifice.

Ryan & Lindsay: [00:52:48] Yeah. We, uh, and here’s another thing for us to get away from this. It takes a lot. We love doing this. It’s not like a hassle, it’s not like, oh, so it literally, when we go on these trips, we went down and spent some time with family in the outer banks in the Carolinas. We were working while we were there. It’s, it’s stuff that we enjoy doing and that took a little bit of self awareness and narrowing down which niche we wanted to jump into in order to have it be fun so that we can pour ourselves into it.

New Speaker: [00:53:21] So cool. I bet you a whole bunch of dads right now are like, man, I hope I get it figured out at this age. All right, so let’s talk about sales places that you sell on. So channels that you sell on. So poshmark is your number one selling channel. Mercury is your number two. And I’ve heard of, I’ve never tried to sell there. Is that, is that a geographic location specific or. I mean, when you look at your Macquarie sales, do they seem to come from a particular area or a particular category? I guess she mostly shoes and clothing. So the, that’s a dumb question, but is it better for that than it is for, I dunno, electronics or something?

Ryan & Lindsay: [00:53:59] Uh, we can only speak to. We have sold a couple electronics on Macquarie, but we can only speak to shoes. Ninety percent. Ninety five percent has been shoes and then less than five percent has been apparel. Um, it’s, it comes down to I think price point. We’re right in the 50 to 60 at up to about $100 price range, you know, asking price and that has been our gold on both poshmark and Ricard. Uh, it has been, I guess if we had to narrow it down literally where these packages are going, there’s a lot of people in the midwest that are ordering shoes on recovery period, but we’ve got stuff going from Alaska all the way to, you know, two or three hours north in Maine that we’re shipping them.

New Speaker: [00:54:47] And when would you say poshmark represents 60 percent of your sales? More mostly clothing, I mean it’s generally what it is. They’re mostly clothing. Um, so about 60 percent of your sales end, is it still trending women mostly on poshmark? No, I mean, that’s interesting. Here’s, here’s the

Ryan & Lindsay: [00:55:06] gold about a marketplace that has a big enough buyer base where you can hit some actual big numbers and that doesn’t have as many male buyers as you know, an Ebay or an Amazon is. You can be at the forefront that when it hits. I mean we did a lot of research. There is hundreds of millions of dollars being purchased every year on poshmark. We love the community aspect of it. We love the ability to be able to share listing, to be able to jump into these poshmark parties. And that’s coming from me, a male who the first three months I was like, what the explicit of word is poshmark. Why are we on this thing? I don’t understand it like I don’t. And Lindsey was very patient and broke it down. And then once I understood the language and the intricacies of it, it blew up for us. Coming from a male selling male shoes, um, you know, we do very well because there’s not a lot of other people doing it very well on that platform.

New Speaker: [00:56:01] Is it, is it an experience issue, Lindsey? I mean, because that’s a generational thing for you guys. If everybody wants to experience this, it’s not the stuff is poshmark. Maybe Macquarie too. I’m not familiar with it, but I know posh I sell on poshmark. Is it the experience piece of it that making it attractive to your generation?

Lindsay: [00:56:24] of it. I know as a seller, I mean I’ve only brought a handful of things on it just to kind of cross cross those things off the list to become an ambassador. Um, but as a seller, at least I love how much control you have over your inventory. Um, summer car is a little different because you can’t share your items daily or multiple times a day and you can’t make offers to likers and things like that. Um, so on poshmark you have that kind of golden nugget of really diving into your inventory and having control over it. And putting it back out there and sharing these parties and making offers to likers, um, I think it’s just about you just feel so much more connected to what you’re selling more than on some of the other buy and sell apps.

Ryan & Lindsay: [00:57:09] And a big, a big thing for us was, are we enjoying the experience that it takes in order to sell effectively and be successful. And we, in the beginning we were doing very well on Ebay in terms of numbers, but we ran into a lot of hassles and felt like we were being put behind the eight ball as a seller and a lot of scenarios where we were very kind. We were very open to uh, you know, the policies that Ebay puts out there. And of course the buyer, the amount of buyers that they connect us with. We were respecting that. But then when it came down to someone returning a used water bottle when we sent them a brand new pair of Nike’s and you know, and then not getting like the pr, there’s so many buyers that it’s hard to protect sellers in certain scam scenarios that we found. Isn’t happening on these other apps, and so we decided to build our business and be successful on those platforms and not have to deal with those hassles.

New Speaker: [00:58:10] I think, uh, you know, there’s no integrity. Your reputation on Ebay, does it matter? We’ve been, I’ve been on it forever and it doesn’t matter. It’s exactly what you described. What I, what I think a couple things. One is I think poshmark being so new it, the scammers aren’t there because it’s not on the radar as much. It’s not as easy, but the other is because there is such a social aspect to poshmark, meaning that you have to have this social presence almost immediately anyway. It makes it harder for these, uh, these, a lot of these fake ones to get through and stay through. They might be able to get away with it once, maybe twice. Um, the other thing that I think poshmark does really, really well is the shipping aspect is God awful symptom. What is this simple? What’d you say?

Ryan & Lindsay: [00:58:57] Yeah. Yeah. And the, the mental real estate saved where his mental real estate, that’s the couple of dollars that we sacrifice. Uh, you know, at scale to save the mental real estate is worth it to us. We may not be getting the absolute best down to the penny best shipping rates, but it’s worth it to us for us to slap a label on the box and boom, it’s out the door within three days. We’ve got our money and we don’t have to worry about, you know, a scamming returns and all that. And I think it’s crucial for the people listening to hear exactly what you said. There is a much bigger a buyer based on Ebay and Amazon, but these other marketplaces, poshmark, Maccari are big enough to hit goals that are significant. I mean, we’re going to make $10,000 profit per month very soon by the end of quarter four and if that isn’t significant in someone’s life, $100,000 a year, then they should be on an Ebay, Amazon walking the dog five times a day.

Ryan & Lindsay: [01:00:03] We really, we should be dealing with that issue that, that, that is a different is you should see a vet about that. That’s a different issue. But now it’s, it’s cool to me, again, you’re designing this life and the mental real estate, right? That’s deep. That is so powerful to say it that way. While you could do these other things, there are trade offs. Every. I had a friend used to say this, everything costs something Steve. Right? And so that that time suck, or that unhappiness, the minute that you’re dealing with that grief that came at the cost of something that you could have been enjoying maybe 10 percent. Oh, 100 percent mental real estate is is like the most valuable thing. Obviously you have to pull from both ends. You have to have the practicality of being a profitable business and making money to pay your bills or do whatever your ambition is, but you also have to pull from the side.

Ryan & Lindsay: [01:00:49] If you’re doing that at a cost that you’re losing sleep at night, you’re not enjoying it. You’re arguing with people because you’re just in a bad mood. It’s not worth the dollars to us. And so we’ve found that that group, and here’s the thing, it’s not smooth sailing. We’re constantly on a daily basis evaluating it and pivoting towards the winds with respect to mental real estate. Well, your, your inventory system. I’m Lindsay, didn’t, that probably isn’t what you started with. I mean, and I’ll put some links here for your youtube channel because you demonstrate, you actually show all that stuff that wasn’t what you started with, right? This has been trial and error and get you to this place. Correct.

Lindsay: [01:01:28] Trial and error for sure. But we from week one viewed this as a business. This was never a hobby for us. Um, so we were keeping track of, you know, to the cent from the very beginning, you know, what things were costing us and then what they were selling for. So we’ve always been really, really good about that and having a system in place, obviously that’s evolved and kind of changed. Um, and then yeah, we went from a five by five Florida ceiling racks of shoes to now this, you know, 10 by 20 or whatever, um, divided by size inventory

Ryan & Lindsay: [01:02:06] and it’s like, it’s a constant look at efficiency. Um, again, if, if we have to dig through a bunch of inventory in order to find issues and literally people might think this is crazy down to the minutes in our day, we value each and every minute. So if an order comes in and we know exactly where it is and we can grab it, throw the label on hand, write a quick little sentence, you know, a couple sentence note thanking them for their order, a wishing them the best and then go walk the dog. We’re golden. If we can do that, we can do that, you know, a hundred hundred times a day and still have plenty of time in our day because we’ve built the efficient system. And the other thing that allows you to do is if that order comes in and you deal with it right away, now that’s off your mind, right?

Ryan & Lindsay: [01:02:50] The burden’s gone. Not the burden, but it takes it off your mind. People think I’m crazy because we ship seven days a week and everybody’s like, what? What do you mean you don’t take a break? Well yeah, we do take a break this by shipping seven days a week. It allows me to take a break whenever we are needed, you know what I mean? So it’s like we can walk away for three days this past weekend because everything was done right up until the second we left our warehouse, then we can turn it back on today. You know what I mean? It kind of a weird thing, but there’s that that is a release. Um, how, how do you handle, because you’re selling things on multiple channels. That sounds like a logistical nightmare. I do the same, but it is a logistic nightmare in my case.

Ryan & Lindsay: [01:03:26] How do you manage that? Well, it comes down to self awareness too. We didn’t start on 10 different platforms. We started on facebook marketplace and then we said, hey, there’s other opportunities. Why don’t we test it out? And we started working on Ebay and each and every time we grew we built efficiencies, you know, had a conversations about are we enjoying this? If this all of a sudden blows up, do you know, can we handle it? And only when we had the ability to take that calculated risk that we bring on another platform, we have a system in place. So when a pair of shoe sells within a minute, everything is taken down off all those other apps. Now we have the benefit of working from our phone and there’s two of us. So Lindsay will take four platforms, I’ll take four platforms and we’ll take the listing off those things out of the 3,100 plus pairs.

Ryan & Lindsay: [01:04:15] We’ve sold less than five times. We’ve sold the same pair of shoes on multiple platforms. And then we have a system in place that if that happens, we reach out to one of the buyers and say, hey, unfortunately this already sold woolmark down that you’re looking for this pair. We bring on new inventory every week and the minute we do bring on this pair in this size, we’ll let you know. And they, it’s, it’s a customer service gold scenario again though, this, those platforms would respect that. Um, as opposed to penalize you for that. And to me there’s a lesson there. Big corporate machines listen to that, right? There is no, this is the truth. Alright. You listed eight platforms you’re selling on. Can we rattle them off real quick? Yeah. Well we got poshmark and we’re Cari offer up, let go eba, facebook marketplace, vinted and we have a our personal website and here’s, here’s, here’s the scenario. Like a lot of people will say that’s a lot. Some people will say on more. It’s whatever works within your system. In addition to those eight, we’re also testing other marketplaces to see because we want to grow because we want to get our stuff in front of a lot of places and and because we have the system in place to handle it, we do not recommend selling on eight different platforms unless you have the self awareness and the ability to handle it.

New Speaker: [01:05:39] Processes in place has to, has to be that way. And I would a thing mean you’re going to say dusty, but of course the $100 pair of sneakers gets treated differently than the $20 pair of sandals. Right? The hundred. You know what gets put on only platforms isn’t the same. Right? So make one platform some make to some make eight,

Ryan & Lindsay: [01:05:58] right? You’re exactly right. And that same exact $100 pair of shoes might be worth 180 on one marketplace and it might be worth 60 on another marketplace.

New Speaker: [01:06:09] Oh, interesting. And so do you price them the same across all platforms or no?

Ryan & Lindsay: [01:06:14] Abs? Absolutely not. We a few evil capitalist you full. Well, what it comes down to is, um, you know, market research, we all always praise under a little bit under what the market value is for that platform and we always, uh, our buyers are always pumped to get it for that price. We never tried to milk more profit out of, uh, out of one pair versus build a relationship with someone who’s like, holy smokes, I got this for this price, I could resell this and make 20 or 30 bucks myself. That’s our, that’s our niche.

New Speaker: [01:06:49] That brings to questions to mind. Probably my, my two before I close with it. Um, one, um, do you have a profit target in mind? So you know, it’s either a percentage or a dollar amount that you have as a rule of thumb and two, are you tracking that customer’s data and you said, Whoa, Steve, Steve bought a pair of Nike’s and he’s a size 12 and so, and he liked these black shoes and then are you somehow capturing that data and then putting it in some kind of database with that information?

Ryan & Lindsay: [01:07:20] So the answer is yes, we’re capturing that data not in any formal manner other than our classic excel sheet on our phone. It’s a little chaotic right now and there is some opportunities for us, uh, moving forward to grow that we use, we try to use the tools that are within each marketplace in order to keep track of that, whether it’s through the conversations that are saved, whether it’s through comments on sold inventory that are kept, um, you know, things like that. But in terms of target margins, we’re always trying to improve, you know, in 2018 we started 2018 at right around a 30 to 33 percent profit margin average per repair. We’re now a surpassing 50 percent profit margin. While maintaining our sell through rate, while also respecting the market value per shoes, which means we’re getting better at sourcing, which means, um, you know, we’re doing a lot more research about what kind of shoes are selling on the marketplace.

Ryan & Lindsay: [01:08:20] We’re always looking at how to improve our numbers while respecting the market. Well, you guys have a very high sell through rate. What’s your percentage again? Right now we’re between 55 and 60 percent. See when you say we’ve got this high south through rate, it’s great. We love that. But then we’re like, oh crap. Because our, our problem right now is bringing in enough inventory to scale. We’ve plateaued. Trust me. Everybody else is out there. Like, are you kidding me? That’s your problem. Yeah. Finding the right inventory is the biggest problem for about that. And money are the bigger problems here. You are trying to figure out how to bring in more of the same inventory. That’s a good problem to have my friend and we agree with you and we would even. We would even cross off a how to bring in that inventory.

Ryan & Lindsay: [01:09:04] We know how we just need to get the capital, for example, Thursday regarding, we’ve mentioned it, we’re going on a sourcing trip. We’ve been on this exact trip. It’s a planned trip. We know all the spots we built relationships. Um, as we grow, we already know that 20, 30, 40, 50 extra spots that we’re going to be able to incorporate our sourcing strategy into the inventory there. We have the space, we’ve got the time. Now we’re looking at capital, uh, as our only problem to scale. You know what one more thing. And then g.you can answer this, this trip. So you’re going to buy. Is this, is life going to happen while you’re there? I mean, are you guys just because some one guy I interviewed Steve, I’m a guy, I shop all day and they just go home or go back to the hotel, eat and just go to bed and get up in the morning. And do it again. Are you making sure that you guys live while you’re doing these sourcing trips?

Lindsay: [01:10:00] Um, not really. I mean, we, as Ryan was saying in the beginning, like we love it and they’re incredibly draining days, mentally and physically. Um, so by the end of it we are kind of in the same boat where we eat and I’m kind of rest up, but we do, we definitely take our time to do things like I’ll go get my nails done every couple of weeks where I have my, I’m usually like Tuesday nights I have my girl’s night with my best friend and there’s little things like that that are mixed in to kind of keep our sanity. I’m Ryan plays hockey all winter and things like that. Um, but on these trips, it really,

Lindsay: [01:10:44] about sourcing, but I mean, will, I don’t know. I mean,

Ryan & Lindsay: [01:10:49] here’s, here’s, here’s what we do. We build in a structured, again respecting our time, but we don’t want to spend seven days sourcing, so we try to squeeze in these times. We plan out the trip so that we can be as efficient as possible. We intentionally save budget to stay in hotels where we feel comfortable. We know there’s going to be good food, we a document and create funny videos, which is a fun for us along the way, but when we get home it’s like, Hey, we’ve just put our, our, our heart and soul into this trip so that we can get the inventory that we know sells. Now let’s take the next couple of days to process through that stuff. You know, have girls’ night, I’ll play some hockey will, will continue to walk the dog and the next step is going to be incorporating people into our buying trips so that we won’t have to even do the buying trips. Um, will be educating people on how to buy and will be providing the income to do it.

New Speaker: [01:11:43] Right. And so do you just bring on team members there and, and uh, you, you’re outsourcing how many weeks? A month? Two days a month. Oh, every week. So it’s two or three days every week and then the other days are back at the place. Okay. All right. Very cool. Well guys, I am. I love the intention. I love the thought. I loved the tweaking. I love the, it’s not all or nothing, it’s, let’s start here, let’s adjust, let’s adjust, let’s adjust because that’s the way life is supposed to be. But the planned, uh, the patients, the, all that self awareness, it’s such a big deal and I just hope, I hope somebody’s listening here today says, wait, you mean I don’t have to do all these other things that everybody else expects me to do? Yes. You’re listening to young to young people who were saying, nope, they’re giving you permission. I mean, that’s what I think this whole episode is that Ryan and Lindsey are giving you permission to maybe look at another way and I just think it’s fabulous. All right, so I’m going to put your instagram connection out here. I’m going to put your youtube channel out here too, if that’s okay? Absolutely. Okay. And so if, if there’s somebody who wants to follow up with the best way to get you guys

Ryan & Lindsay: [01:12:51] instagram, we are very efficient about answering questions that the door is wide open. Do not feel bad about any questions about, you know, there’s no such thing as a silly question. Literally hundreds of questions come in everyday and we respond to every single one of them. It’s how we’ve grown. We asked people, we don’t always get responses, but we asked people questions that are doing stuff at much higher level or where we want to be. And I think the, if you’re scared to ask the question, you’re never going to grow. And that’s, that’s what we, we’ve opened the door

New Speaker: [01:13:24] mental real estate episode. I’m telling you this is good. Alright, say your, say your instagram thing just because of people to want to click to my website, which I’m fine with it.

New Speaker: [01:13:38] instagram. Okay. Alright. So last question I always end with this is a podcast to help people who are stuck. People who are, you know, and they’re stuck for a myriad of reasons, could be financial, but a lot of the time it’s mental. Um, and a lot of the time I think it’s this permission issue right there, waiting for somebody to give him permission, um, and they just need to look inside. So what’s your best advice for somebody who stuck who just can’t get past it?

Ryan & Lindsay: [01:14:04] A lot of the were. It’s easy as know your numbers. A lot of the answers to a whatever you’re struggling with is in your numbers. And every time we have asked people that have reached out to us, Hey, I’m struggling with this. We ask a simple question, do you know why you know, do you know why you’re struggling? You know, why you’re not selling enough. Do you know, you know, knowing your numbers on a daily basis will allow you to see exactly why you’re struggling. And then the next question is, how do I improve it? It’s, you’ve got to pivot away and stop being romantic to what’s not working. So know your numbers daily would be our.

New Speaker: [01:14:42] And then you’d have a person like Lindsay reverse engineer it and figure it out. What it takes. Love it. You got to have more in your life. Everybody needs more Lindsey in their life. That’s the so pony. Hey, I wish you guys nothing but success. Thank you so much. We appreciate the time. So very cool. And I think this is such a powerful thing to take away from this, um, you know, this mental real estate, uh, uh, that Ryan called it is so powerful, the hassles that are coming along with other channels, if they’re not worth it to you find another way. Because rather than walk away, you’ve learned skills, you have skills, you, you’re a good buyer, you’re a good source, or you could take photos, you could create listings, but if you’re not going to get treated right by, uh, um, by platform because they’re just not, then find other ways.

New Speaker: [01:15:27] Because guess what, these other platforms have realized that we’re going to take away the hassle. So shipping by making it simple to ship. Like on poshmark, it is simple. Literally, you get a label, you put a label on the box and life is gone. It’s gone. Very, very few returns. If those things are taken away and that is important to you to get that mental real estate back, please take advantage of it so you don’t walk away because that just breaks my heart to see your waist, this, this life that can be for you. You have skills, so please take advantage of and reach out if I can help you in anyway. Um, I get a lot of emails that I reply to every single one. It’s Steven, Eddie Commerce, momentum.com. But listen to these guys. Go check them out on youtube. Go check them out on instagram and just look again what’s potential. These guys have figured it out and I just love the fact that they do it together. So, so cool. ECOMMERCE momentum.com, ecommerce momentum dotcom. Take care.

Cool voice guy: [01:16:23] Thanks for listening to the incomers momentum podcast. All the links mentioned today can be found at incomers momentum. Doug, come under this episode number. Please remember to subscribe and like us on itunes.